Inferno Resources

This site contains pages dedicated to images, music, timelines, popular culture references and maps that help broaden your understanding of Dante's works. Check out Sandro Botticelli's map of the Inferno, made into an interactive wonderland by the good folks at the University of Virginia. If you only have time for one stop on the Internet, this is your place.

This site offers a visual and interactive journey through Dante's "Otherworlds." In this case, click on Inferno for a multimedia exploration of Dante's Hell. Click on any level in the gyre, and you will be directed to a portal page that offers very brief audio clips of passage (read in Italian), a nested list of the inmates for that particular circle of Hell and a gallery of relevant images and study questions.

The home site for this short documentary produced by Boris Acosta. It uses images from the artist Gustave Doré and contains interviews with scholars, actors and enthusiasts of Dante's work. You'll have to go to YouTube to view clips, but this site has some amazing graphics and solid information about Dante and his work.

A popular mash-up of blatantly obvious and obscure references to Dante in our society. Don't know how a 14th century poet affects your life? Take a look at this site.

Dante’s Inferno, directed by Henry Otto, is a horror movie spin-off of Inferno.

Dante’s Inferno, directed by Harry Lachman, is another strange spin-off ofInferno about unsafe carnivals and other weird stuff.

L’Inferno, directed by Francesco Bertolini, is a silent film that "loosely" follows the original Inferno.

Dante’s Inferno, directed by Sean Meredith, is an animated and modernized version of Inferno. James Cromwell is the voice of Virgil.

A map of Hell from the Mandelbaum translation of Inferno.`

A hypermedia archive that provides beautiful images of visionary poet William Blake's water colors, pencil sketches and copper plate engravings of Dante's Inferno. Objects 1-72 deal with matter from the Inferno; the rest are images from Purgatorio and Paradiso.

See how the modern artist envisions Dante's Hell.

The full text of the Wordsworth translation of Inferno.

The full Italian text + a big list of translations.

Here’s a quiz to find out where you’d end up in Hell.

Here’s the official homepage for 2007 Inferno film.

Think you know something about Medieval geography? Anyone who has read Dante's Inferno understands pretty quickly that the lay of the land is more complex than we poor modern folk ever suspected. Michael Fragstein's 5-minute video will help you get a handle on where you stand as you read this epic poem.

OK, so it's in Italian – but so is the original poem. Roberto Benigni – of Life is Beautiful fame – performs Dante's masterwork. Did he really memorize all those passages? Word on the street is yes, even if he did have a teleprompter to keep him on track. We're linking to the performance of the first canto here, but you can search YouTube for other cantos in the series.

IMDb's page on this work has the usual information on storyline and cast, but it also has an incredible video sample of the film.

Amazingly creepy silent film that has been re-mastered and given a new soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. Turn down the lights. Turn up the sound. Lock the doors. Click through the menu on this YouTube page to see all segments of the film.

Not sure what to do on your next vacation? Why not head out to Italy to see how they do Dante? This "re-enactment" of Dante's harrowing journey will make you wonder if the Poet is rolling in his grave. Don't worry about the language barrier here...the dancing devils will convince you that you are in Hell.

Is there anything cooler or more intriguing than a medieval manuscript copied by monks in a European monastery? Only when it's a manuscript about Hell. Take a look at this brilliant codex created in the 14th century to get a good idea of how Dante's contemporaries imagined the Devil's Dominion.

In this game, Dante is a buff dude who battles through the nine circles of Hell in order to rescue Beatrice. Yeah, it's not all that faithful to the original poem… On the game's website, you can check out the trailer, watch some gameplay, view interviews with the creators, learn about the original poem, and even explore Hell. Just remember, "To best experience Hell, please turn on your speakers."